03 July 2017

News Story: The Military Can't Fix This Mess Alone - Former U.S Envoy

In an article published recently in National Interest magazine, the former U.S ambassador to Afghanistan James Cunningham said there is no guarantee that America can "win" in Afghanistan, but it is quite clear that it can lose.

He stated that U.S President Donald Trump’s decision last month to delegate troop level and operations decisions to his secretary of defense, James Mattis, set the correct conditions to improve security in Afghanistan.

But Cunningham asked the question that many have done - if the U.S could not win with 100,000 troops, what difference would a few thousand more now make?

He said the key here was that despite mistakes having been made in the past and present, there have been significant achievements gained. He also said that any new strategy must aim all its instruments of power at countering Daesh and the Taliban.

He said if the U.S gets this right, “America and its allies will be on much sounder footing in Afghanistan and in the global confrontation with Islamist terror.”

He went on to say, “There is no guarantee that the United States can ‘win’ in Afghanistan, but it is quite clear that it can lose, with grave consequences for American security.”